Consumer electronics products such as televisions, digital media players (including, without limitation Roku®, Apple TV®, and/or the like), Blu-ray players, and media recording and/or playback devices (including, but not limited to video cassette recorders, digital video recorders, stereo systems, and/or the like) come packaged with dedicated remote control devices when sold. These remote control devices may use infrared (non-visible) light or may use electromagnetic waves covering other ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum. These devices are human interface devices that allow a user to control the consumer electronics products. This communication may allow the user to perform functions such as navigating menu systems, entering text, controlling functionality of the consumer electronics products, and/or the like.
Several disadvantages regarding having a dedicated remote control device to control a consumer electronic device include, but are not necessarily limited to, the dedicated remote control device adding to the cost of the product, consumers accumulating large numbers of dedicated remote controls, the remote control device becoming lost due to potential infrequent use, and/or the like.
But, if a dedicated remote control device is not included with a consumer electronics product, some fundamental problems may arise. Consider an Apple TV, for example. It may be connected to the Internet using Wi-Fi. It comes with a remote control device. The remote control device is used to setup the digital media player. If the digital media player were connected to the Internet, a cell phone app could be used to communicate with the Apple TV and control it. But, the Apple TV cannot connect to the Internet without user input. In computer science terminology, this is referred to as a “deadlock situation.” There is no way to progress without the remote control device.
Latency minimization is also a concern with remote control devices. The user prefers a very quick response time from the consumer electronics product. The time for communication of a command from the remote control device (whether IR remote control or App) necessarily adds to the latency that the user experiences.
Hence, there is a need for more robust and scalable solutions for providing virtual remote control of consumer electronics devices that do not have or do not require dedicated remote controllers.